Welcome to the New Academic Year

Dear Faculty and Staff,

As we begin our new academic year, there is much to celebrate at all three Schools, across our Strategic Plan initiatives, and in our administrative ranks. Here is a roundup of recent developments at Baruch:

Weissman School of Arts and Sciences

On July 5, we welcomed Aldemaro Romero Jr. as dean of the Weissman School and professor of biology in the Department of Natural Sciences. An internationally recognized scholar, he was recently dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern University of Illinois Edwardsville—like Baruch, a public institution serving a diverse student population. His experience strengthening and supporting liberal arts education is critically important to us.

School of Public and International Affairs

This academic year is the first for our renamed—and globally enhanced—School of Public and International Affairs. Owing to Baruch’s strengths in global education and the increased urgency of international issues facing us, our new Master of International Affairs program offers students the opportunity to gain expertise in various concentrations. The program is headed by Carla Anne Robbins, faculty director and clinical professor of national security studies.

Zicklin School of Business

To meet the needs of current and prospective business students, we are unveiling a new Executive Doctoral Business program, with candidate selection taking place in Spring 2017 and the program commencing next Fall. Additionally, the Zicklin School is refocusing its pedagogy, specifically within the MBA program. We’ll have more details about those changes in the coming months.

In keeping with our Strategic Goal V, Strengthen Financial Foundation and Infrastructure, I am happy to report the recent and much-needed upgrade of display technology on the Wasserman Trading Floor in the Subotnick Financial Services Center. Thanks to funds from Borough President Gale A. Brewer, outdated features including the LED Ticker, LED wall boards, and CRT monitors have been replaced with new, energy-efficient equipment.

Our Athletics Department is an important part of Strategic Goal II, Enhance Academic and Co-curricular Experience. For more than 200 student-athletes at Baruch, this department plays a critical role in their co-curricular experience. Because of its importance and the recentInfractions Report from the NCAAthat outlines room for improvement, we have made significant changes to the staff and processes in the department. Baruch’s new athletic director, Heather MacCulloch, reports directly to the dean of students and has substantially more responsibility to assure compliance with the NCAA Division III By-laws by coaches and other staff. Along with the appointment of a faculty athletics representative, Professor Marc Edelman, we have established an Athletic Compliance Team, which is chaired by the College’s legal counsel, Olga Dais, and put other procedures in place to ensure an environment in which co-curricular activities, such as Athletics, are conducted as a beneficial part of the students’ overall educational experience. (Read President Wallerstein’s full message.)

A development that satisfies several Strategic Goals, the temporary Clivner=Field Plaza on 25th Street is moving through the process of being developed into a permanent plaza. With input from the Baruch and neighboring communities, we have a design that has been approved by NYC’s Public Design Commission, and we’re working with the Department of Transportation and the Department of Design and Construction to begin actual construction in spring 2017. This will be one of the first privately financed public plazas in the City’s history, and the College has already raised more than $3 million for this purpose. You can still participate in the plaza transformation by purchasing a personalized paver.

As of July, Allison Lehr Samuels is the new director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. A lecturer in the Narendra Paul Loomba Department of Management with a focus on entrepreneurship, she is a field mentor at the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship, and a recipient of the Zicklin Hybrid and Online Teaching with Technology Award.

Michele Doney recently began serving as director of the Student Academic Consulting Center (SACC) and the Immersion Program. She was previously director of the Math and Science Resource Center at John Jay College.

After more than six years as director of the Honors Program, Nancy Aries, PhD, professor of public affairs, has moved into the newly created role of academic director of the Honors Program. Concurrently, Jody Clark Vaisman, PhD, who, since 2010, has served as associate director and academic program manager of the Honors Program, was appointed its director.

Baruch’s Tools for Clear Speech program, under the direction of Dennis (DJ) Dolack, has recently become an independent academic support unit within Baruch. The program was launched in 2011 as an ancillary unit within the Student Academic Consulting Center.

This looks to be a full and rewarding year at Baruch. I know we are up to the challenge of meeting the needs of our students and community, and I thank everyone in advance for their dedication and hard work.